Hurricanes and November

The month of November, is to the Panthers what Keenan will be to Calgary… Devastating! Why is this a bad month for the Panthers? Is it because at the end of the Hurricane season the players are so relieved and tired from the past six months that they lose focus? Last season in November we went 3-7-3 with 13 games in 28 days, this season we will have 14 games in 27 days. The November curse (yes I called it that) really started in 05-06 after we lost two home games to Hurricanes, not the team but the tropical storm. We then went into November and won one game out of 13. We were outscored 51 to 31 in that stretch, and never rebounded. I put together the past 5 season’s totals from November.

01-02: 3-7-0-2 = 8 pts
02-03: 3-3-5-2 = 13 pts
03-04: 5-8-0-2 = 12 pts
05-06: 1-9-3 = 5 pts
06-07: 3-7-3 = 9 pts

Now let’s look at our opponents for this upcoming season. I put the number of games we play them, and our past November records against them from the five seasons.

Sabres (1 game) – 2-2-0-0
Hurricanes (3 games) – 0-4-0-0
Lightning (2 games) – 1-1-0-0
Thrashers (2 games) – 0-5-0-1
Capitals (3 games) – 1-1-0-1
Blue Jackets (1 game) – 0-0-0-0
Rangers (1 game) – 0-1-1-2
Bruins (1 game) – 1-1-0-0

That’s a combined 5-15-1-4 (ouch)

So where does all this leave us for next season? I don’t know, but I hope its better then the past. This season we will have 10 divisional games, and these games cannot all be lost. The Panthers have an opportunity to end the curse in dramatic fashion. If we play as we have played in past Novembers, we will once again put ourselves into a hole that can’t be clawed out of. If we are to make the playoffs this year, the true test will be leaving November with a winning record.